Consumer spending on mobile apps to reach $110 billion in 2018

Games will remain the biggest moneymaker for developers

Worldwide consumer spending on mobile apps will grow by roughly 30 percent next year to over $110 billion according to a new report from app market data and insights company App Annie.

Games will remain the biggest moneymaker for app developers although a newer monetization model – in-app subscriptions – is already having a significant impact on consumer spending. The shift, App Annie says, is a strong reflection of increasing maturation in the app economy as consumers look for more value in their purchases.

China has been a key market for app makers in past years and that won’t be changing anytime soon. In fact, App Annie estimates that China’s growth rate will significantly outpace the rest of the world in 2018. That’s even more impressive when you consider China is already the top market for iOS App Store consumer spending.

China isn’t the only market to watch, however, as India and Brazil are expected to be hotbeds for Android phone usage. This year alone, time spent on Android devices is up 50 percent in India and nearly 30 percent in Brazil. That’s primarily due to the fact that both countries have large populations of people that don’t yet own smartphones. As more people take ownership of smartphones, usage will naturally increase.

Next year will mark the 10-year anniversary for both the Apple App Store and Android Market. Adoption hasn’t been an issue for either market as there were more than two million apps in the App Store and over 3.5 million on Google Play as of the end of October 2017. In that month alone, roughly 50,000 new apps were added to the iOS App Store while 150,000 new apps found their way to Google Play.